What makes a good man
by itsDelta
Summary: "This is the best life advice you'll ever get, kiddo: enemies are like fireworks" "Oh, really colorful and everyone loves them?" "Nah. The party gets funnier if you set them on fire" - Things aren't always what they seem, Lilith knows that even too well; and after a life with nothing but Buffout, guns and bullets to keep her going, maybe she'll discover another side of reality.
1. The awakening

Everything was calm, soothing and silent. The only sound that could be heard was the rustle of the wind through the leaves. It was a surprisingly warm night, and all that peace was quite unusual for a place like that, almost as if all that stillness was nothing more than a prelude to the greatest of storms. Lilith was resting with her back leaned against the concrete wall of the factory while she played casually with the trigger of the rifle she had strapped to her hip. She had been waiting for more than ten minutes, and it was quite unusual for _him_ to be so late, but Lilith decided not to go looking for him for another couple of minutes. At some point, she began to hear a muffled clanging coming from a distance, that made her throw an hopeful glance at the woods that covered the hills around the factory. A few seconds passed as the clanging became increasingly louder, until someone came out of the woods. The power armor was hiding the body, but in the very moment Lilith saw it, she already knew who was inside. Come on, no one other than him could be so badass to paint the Gunners' logo on their power armor.

-Hey, princess-

-Eddie. You are late- she said, without trying to mask the worried tone in her voice. He got out of his power armor, leaving it there to get closer to the girl. They shared a hug, and he gave her a quick kiss. Lilith was feeling happy, but at the same time something felt wrong. Like really, really wrong. She ignored the feeling, leaning her head on the Gunner's chest as he caressed her hair, but it didn't weaken a bit; it was almost as the air was thick with danger.

-I'm sorry, girl, but Ryder is such a pain in the ass. He stopped me while I was about to get going, just because he wanted to complain about his usual bullshit-

-Let me guess. He still wants you to put a good word for him with Wes about all that reassignment stuff-

-Well, good intuition-

The two laughed, but it was only then that Lilith noticed _them_. Hundreds of tiny lights were floating in the darkness. Edward noticed them as well, but didn't seem nearly as much as worried as Lilith was: he just stared in awe at the tiny lights, without doing anything at all. It was feeling almost as the lights were staring at them, and the reason why got soon clear: tens and tens of raiders streamed out of the woods, their eyes so bright and red to look like pieces of burning coal. The raiders surrounded Lilith and Edward, grabbing the Gunner and dragging him into the darkness. Lilith screamed, reaching for her rifle and trying to shoot the raiders that got Edward, but when the bullets pierced through the flesh they left nothing but bright, glowing wounds. The raiders didn't even flinch, as if they felt no pain at all, and to make things even worse than they already were Edward was still doing nothing to stop the enemies. He was just staring into space with a lifeless look in his eyes and a foolish, happy grin.

-Edward!- she cried, getting no response by the Gunner. The only answer she got was a laughter from one of the raiders, the only one wearing a power armor. He got closer to Lilith, no matter how much she shot him, until he was so close that Lilith could reach out and touch him if she wanted. A strong heat was coming from him, almost as it was flowing from the glowing wounds that Lilith had inflicted him, making her skin feel like it was burning. Tears filled her eyes, and the smirk on the raider's face grew wider, revealing his teeth, long and sharp like the fangs of a beast.

-I had warned you. See you in hell, Inferno- he whispered, before starting to laugh in her face. Crimson flames invaded everything, engulfing Lilith and the raider, but the laughter kept going on.

Lilith woke up suddenly, and it took her a couple of seconds to notice that she just had a nightmare.

-God dammit- she muttered, still panting and covered in sweat. She tried to calm down, but she gave up quickly. There was no way to calm down after one of these nightmares, and Lilith knew it even too well. The sun was rising, and Lilith gave it a blank stare, realizing that she had slept way more than she wanted. The girl sighed lightly, getting up from the mattress on which she had slept and reaching her pocket to grab a small bottle of pills. She shook it, but the bottle seemed to be empty. In a fit of rage, Lilith threw it violently against the wall, storming out of the tiny shack to get ready to go.

-Fuck this, I gotta work, no time to sleep, dammit- she muttered to herself, in a tone that was really similar to a growl. She could have used a bit of Buffout, but there was none left, so she had to distract herself from the tiredness that was overwhelming her in other ways. Lilith checked her pip-boy briefly, looking through the list of her jobs to decide what to do next, only to discover that she already had completed them all. The mercenary's expression changed from very angry to very worried really quickly, as she knew that she needed something to keep her busy after these nightmares, and she had nothing to do. Getting drunk as hell was always an option, though. She scratched her neck, staring blankly at the grass while thinking about what to do. There were various people who could need a good gun for hire. There was the Brotherhood of Steel, for example, or maybe the raiders or even the Gunners, but she didn't really want to go all the way to their bases since they were so damn far. Her eye fell on the small bottle resting inside the shack, and suddenly she knew where to go. She needed chems, alcohol and a job, and there was only one place reasonably near in which Lilith could easily find all three: Goodneighbor.

-Fine. I hope Hancock won't mind getting drunk with me- she sighed, grabbing her Gauss rifle before going for Goodneighbor.

N/A: Yeah, this is it. It will get better, no worries(?). I would appreciate if you could point out any grammar mistakes, since English is not my first language, so I can correct it. Thanks :)


	2. True power's backup

It was in moments like these that Lilith liked to curse her natural resistance to alcohol, as it had taken three entire bottles of vodka to get her drunk. Not even Hancock had been able to keep her pace, and now the ghoul was laying asleep on the table while she kept emptying one glass after another. Lilith closed her eyes, letting the jazz music carry her thoughts away like a stream. That night, Magnolia was on stage, but Lilith had no time nor will to try hitting on her as she always did. It was a sort of an inside play between the two: since they met the first time at the Third Rail, every time that Lilith came back she never forgot to offer a drink to Magnolia, chat her up or talk a bit about hot guys. Things never had a reason to actually become serious, but the fact alone that Lilith didn't even seem interested in coming around the singer had been enough to make her worry a little bit. The idea of talking to Lilith got into Magnolia's mind a couple of times, but eventually she just elected to leave her alone and try to lift her mood by singing her favorite songs. The idea was quite working as a smile came up on Lilith's face for a bit, but it promptly disappeared when an angry voice sneaked into the stream interrupting it. Lilith glared angrily at the direction from which the voice was coming, and she spotted three men on the other side of the bar. She couldn't figure out what they were saying, but one of them seemed furious, while the other two were taking turns to say god knows what to him. Lilith stared at the trio until they were finished, and as soon as they stopped talking she moved her attention back to the empty glass, filling it again. The two men that were talking went for the door, and when they passed by Lilith one of them tried to reach for her ass to smack it. She reacted almost immediately, turning so fast to be unpredictable and grabbing the man's arm before he could reach her.

-Calm down, fag, you ain't getting any of this-

A wide grin popped up on Lilith's face, and before the man could even try to react she twisted his arm, snapping his wrist. The guy shouted, freeing his arm from Lilith's grip and grabbing his wrist. His companion heard him scream and came back immediately.

-Barnes, what the fuck happened to your wrist?-

-This fucking bitch broke it! It hurts as hell, Winlock- he whined, while Lilith still had a ferocious smile on her face. The other guy – Winlock, apparently – got closer to Lilith with a furious look in his eyes, rising his fist as to threaten the girl.

-You will pay for this- he snarled.

-Oh, ok. Do you guys prefer cold hard cash or credit card?- she said, laughing hard in his face. Enraged by her laughter, Winlock tried to punch Lilith, but she dodged the move quickly by jumping on the side.

-Try again, officer fuckface- she laughed, giving him a head-butt that he was going to remember for a long time. He roared in pain, but this wasn't enough to stop him: he charged towards her, and any attempt at dodging was vain. Winlock grabbed Lilith and slammed her violently on a table. She didn't feel any pain, drunk as she was, and kneed Winlock right in the groin. He let go immediately, falling on the table right near Lilith and muttering something between his teeth. She pointed at Winlock and laughed again, while the other attendants of the bar were grouping together to see the fight. Even the guy that was arguing with Winlock and Barnes before noticed the mess, and got closer to see what was happening. The sight of Winlock and Barnes getting their asses wrecked by some random drunk girl was enough to put an amused smirk on his face, so he stayed around to see the outcome. Barnes finally decided to join the fight, and took advantage of Lilith's inattention to grab her from behind and hold her by her neck with his arm. Lilith tried pushing herself away from Barnes by grabbing his wrist, but she noticed soon that the injured one was not the same that she managed to grab: after all, that guy wasn't a complete moron.

-Come on, Winlock, stab the living shit out of this bitch- he said, trying to hide the pain in his voice, as he was struggling both to keep Lilith still and to ignore the pain that was coming from his broken wrist. Winlock got up from the table and took a switchblade out of his pocket, getting close to the girl and ready to stab her. Lilith's intentions, however, were far from staying still and let him have his way: she grabbed Barnes' arm to get a little room to breathe, and then laid a kick right on Winlock's jaw. He let go the switchblade and raised his hands onto his jaw, moaning for some reason. Barnes froze for a moment, staring at his companion to try to understand what happened. Winlock started coughing and spitting blood everywhere, and the two realized that he must have bit his tongue or something like that. Lilith started laughing again, and was so busy mocking Winlock that didn't notice Barnes trying to reach for his gun. His maneuver, however, didn't get to an actual end, as the so-called "angry guy" who was following the fight noticed him immediately, and grabbed a nearby bottle of bourbon smashing it on Barnes' head. The mercenary lost consciousness and fell on the ground. Lilith turned towards the guy, but before she could say anything to him the bouncer came into the bar to put an end to the brawl-

-You, you, you and you, get out of here while you are still on your feet. Well, at least three of you are- he ordered, pointing at Lilith, Winlock, Barnes and the guy who gave the final blow to Barnes. He seemed quite pissed off by the fact that he had just been kicked out for having laid one single hit, but he decided not to argue with Ham and went out of the bar. Lilith followed him, and Winlock dragged an unconscious Barnes away from the Third Rail, disappearing into the darkness of the alleys of Goodneighbor. As soon as she got out, Lilith stretched and yawned as she had just been to nothing more than a picnic. She noticed only after a couple of seconds that the third guy was still there, smoking a cigarette and staring into space.

-Heya. Thanks for the backup, dude- she smiled. He gave her an inquisitive glance.

-I've never seen Winlock and Barnes getting their asses kicked so bad by someone. They ain't gonna forgive ya-

She chuckled, amused by the sentence that contained both some sort of a compliment and what seemed much like a threaten in such a small number of words.

-A person who was very dear to me once said that the ones who have true power don't need the forgiveness of those who have none-

-True power? Well, this person must have had a massive ego-

-Yeah-

A couple of seconds passed in the most absolute silence, as they both kept staring at the sky.

-So, does true power have an actual name or what?- he said after a while, laying his eye on her again. Lilith laughed.

-Well, the nickname I'm given most frequently is some variation of "that fucking bitch", but you can call me Lilith. What about you? Unless you wanna be called _True Power's Backup_ , obviously-

-Name's MacCready-

Lilith tilted her head a little, with a curious look in her eyes.

-Woah. Your parents must have been so mean, man-

He glared at her.

-That isn't my darn name. The full thing is Robert MacCready. Well, actually is Robert Joseph MacCready, but no one uses those names anyways. People just call me MacCready-

She nodded, thinking for a couple seconds with the same expression that one could have when thinking to something of the utmost importance.

-RJ- she finally answered, so proud of the nickname she had just made up. MacCready sighed, tossing the cigarette end on the ground.

-Well, that's new-

His expression alone was enough to make her understand that he didn't like the nickname at all, but she ignored completely this fact and kept smiling in ecstasy like she was high on something. He didn't question her attitude, however: she was drunk, after all.

-Alright, I owe you a drink since you smashed a full bottle on Barnes' head, but at the moment my own head feels like a bunch of angry Stingwings, so we'll have to talk about that whenever I'll be less drunk than now. Will… tomorrow afternoon be fine for you?- she asked. He hesitated for a second, noticing only then that her eyes were bloodshot. Yeah, probably she was also high on something, and he would have put his bet on Psycho, Buffout or Fury since the ease with which she had snapped Barnes' wrist during the brawl.

-Yeah, but…- he started. _Are you okay?_ he thought, but he didn't really have the time to say it, because she interrupted him brutally.

-Awesome. Now I gotta go, see you tomorrow, RJ- she said, running off to god knows where before MacCready could complain about that nickname. He stood there, staring at the direction in which Lilith had just disappeared and lighting another cigarette.

-Well. A free drink never killed anybody, after all- he told himself, before going for Hotel Rexford to rent a room for the night.


End file.
